A personal blog from librarian who is progressive and pagan, discussing politics, current events, and books.

Monday, May 23, 2011

More Christian Nation Foolishness

Not from David Barton this time - though speaking of Barton, Jon Stewart had constitutional historian Richard Beeman on his show and they discussed what Barton had said.

Anyway, Brayton quotes the Christian Nation advocate then gives some quotes from Jefferson that are apropos. I wish people would rermember the context that the Founding Fathers wrote from. Yes, they were overwhelmingly from Christian backgrounds. But they were much closer that we are to the historical period in which wars of religion wrenched Europe apart and caused havoc. More, they saw the abuses of the institutiioinal church - any institutional church, and they spoke out freqently with contempt for clerics who abused their society. And while the 16th century was the one in which a monolithic church was broken by dissent and the creation of churches who promoted reform, it was the 18th century that began to think that governments should stand apart from any specific religion in order to provide the right that each person worship as their conscience dictated, which meant that governments should be governed by principles with a secular basis. Madison and others listed the sources of the U.S. Constitution, and they did not list the Bible or religious principles as sources. Government simply cannot promote a specific religion while maintaining religious freedom. I can't see why some people refuse to see that truth.